Media Statement
For immediate release
Friday, 22 July 2005

Alexander: ‘Hurt feelings’ claim owes it all to Labour, Greens

The former Christchurch prison inmate’s “hurt feelings” compensation claim lies squarely at the feet of Labour and the Greens, “who doubtless won some tawdry political trade-off for their support of the Prisoners and Victims Claims Act”, United Future’s Marc Alexander said today.

“I said at the time the Bill passed into law that it was a disgraceful sell-out that put the privileges of criminals ahead of those victims yet again,” Mr Alexander said.

“And here we have it - an ex-prisoner suing for hurt feelings after a prison guard, whose family were threatened by the prisoner, assaulted him.

“The guard paid a high price for losing control: he lost his job. This money-grubbing ex-prisoner doesn’t deserve one red cent of public money. The public has already had to foot a considerable bill for the period of his incarceration because he had committed a crime that meant that he had to be locked up.

“It’s a good thing that there is an election coming and that issues such as this one are coming up.
“Helen, Rod and Jeanette should be out there today answering for the very predictable fruit of the law they put through when they were fully counselled that this was exactly what would happen,” Mr Alexander said.

“The Prisoners and Victims Claims Act is a disgrace to justice and to all who would victims first,” he said.

ENDS

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